Expanded retail discount

The 2023/24 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates relief scheme will provide eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality and leisure properties with 75% relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business.

The 2022/23 scheme gave eligible properties 50% relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business.

Eligibility Descriptions

Eligible businesses will include those which are wholly or mainly used:

• as shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues
• for assembly and leisure or
• as hotels, guest and boarding premises and self-catering accommodation.

We consider assembly and leisure to mean premises that are being used for the provision of sport, leisure and facilities to visiting members of the public (including for the viewing of such activities) including:

• sports grounds and clubs
• museums and art galleries
• nightclubs
• sport and leisure facilities
• stately homes and historic houses
• theatres
• tourist attractions
• gyms
• wellness centres, spas, massage parlours
• casinos, gambling clubs and bingo halls.

Premises that are being used for the assembly of visiting members of the public include:

• public halls
• clubhouses, clubs and institutions

We consider hotels, guest and boarding premises and self-catering accommodation to mean:

Where part is being used for the provision of living accommodation as a business:

• hotels, guest and boarding houses
• holiday homes
• caravan parks and sites.

The list below sets out the types of businesses that the government does not consider to be an eligible use for the purpose of this discount.

• Financial services (e.g. banks, building societies, cash points, bureaux de change, short-term loan providers).
• Medical services (e.g. vets, dentists, doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors).
• Professional services (e.g. solicitors, accountants, insurance agents/ financial advisers, employment agencies, estate agents, letting agents).
• Post office sorting offices.
• All business premises that are not reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public.

The lists set out above are not intended to be exhaustive as it would be impossible to list the many and varied uses that exist within the qualifying purposes. There will also be mixed uses. We will determine for themselves whether particular properties not listed are broadly similar in nature to those above and, if so, to consider them eligible for the relief. Conversely, properties that are not broadly similar in nature to those listed above should not be eligible for the relief.

Nursery Discount

Nursery Discount which was included within the 2021/22 Extended Retail Discount scheme ended with effect 31 March 2022.

The cash cap and subsidy control

In line with the conditions set by the government, a ratepayer may only claim up to £110,000 of support under the 2022/23 & 2023/24 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme for all of their eligible hereditaments. This cash cap applies at a Group company level (so holding companies and subsidiaries cannot claim up to the cash cap for each company) and also to organisations which, although not a company, have such an interest in a company that they would, if they were a company, result in its being the holding company.

Furthermore, the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme is subject to the subsidies chapter within the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). The subsidies chapter within the TCA only applies to subsidies over the value of approximately £343,000 per beneficiary over a 3-year period (consisting of the current financial year and the two previous financial years) (the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit). Extended Retail Discounts granted in 2020/21 or 2021/22 do not count towards the limit. Covid business grants received from local government and any other subsidy claimed under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit over the 3 year period should be counted. Therefore, to claim the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief you must not have exceeded either the £110,000 cash cap or the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit of £343,000 over 3 years (including 2023/24).

Visit the GOV.UK website for a full list of qualifying businesses and criteria

How to apply

Businesses that are currently eligible for 2022/23 Retail Discount do not need to re-apply for 2023/24 Retail Discount. This will be automatically applied to your business rates bill for 2023/24.

If you wish to submit a new application for Retail Discount please contact us at business.rates@reading.gov.uk

The Council will consider each award based on individual merits and reserves the right to decline or withdraw an award. In a similar way to other reliefs, this is a test on property use rather than occupation. It is for Reading Borough Council to determine whether particular properties are broadly similar in nature to those list above.

You will be required to confirm that you have read and understood the Retail Discount Cap Limits and comply with the limits.

Visit the GOV.UK website for a full list of qualifying businesses and criteria